


a well-travelled love

by klutzysurgeon



Category: One Piece
Genre: Alabasta, F/F, HAROLD THEY'RE LESBIANS, Long-Distance Relationship, Mutual Pining, Post-Time Skip
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-13
Updated: 2018-02-13
Packaged: 2019-03-17 15:37:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13662003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/klutzysurgeon/pseuds/klutzysurgeon
Summary: every ship returns to port; nami/vivi, of the sort of love that waits across miles of distance, of the kinds of hearts that endure.written as a fic exchange foropvalentines♡





	a well-travelled love

**Author's Note:**

  * For [coz](https://archiveofourown.org/users/coz/gifts).



> Happy Valentine's Day! And to whoever my partner was: I hope this fic is something you enjoy and that you have a day filled with warmth and love, be it familial, platonic or romantic ♡

"So, who’s the lucky fella?”

Todo’s question is as lighthearted as everything he says but it comes out of the blue as Vivi sits at his table, now choking on the drink she’d been sipping. Genuine Yuba water always tastes purer, somehow, though she can’t tell if it’s because the water comes from the direct centre of the country or just because she’s sentimental.

Regardless, it still burns getting caught in her throat as she wheezes, staring at Todo with wide eyes. “Wh-what?”

“Oh come now Vivi,” Todo laughs. “You’ve looked lovestruck ever since that group left, and it’s been months. Don’t think I don’t notice— I’d call you my daughter if I didn’t think the King would have my head for it. Did you fall for that Luffy fellow?”

“My father would never, you know that.” Vivi’s laugh falls a bit short as she tries to change the topic, taking another sip of her water and watching the children playing outside the window.

It’s only been four months, but Yuba is thriving. She visits as often as she can— which has been more frequently now that most of the country is regaining its normalcy— and nothing has made her feel more proud than watching this town develop, seeing how hard Kohza and the others work.

Todo hums as he stands, pushing his chair back into place. “Well,” he glances around, raising his voice on purpose. “I’d have to tell you it’s dangerous to affiliate yourself with pirates.” Vivi muffles a giggle behind her hand; he’s still expecting her father to be listening at any time. He crouches down to her ear level when he walks by, whispering in a conspiratorial tone: “But you know better than that— you always follow your heart, my girl. It won’t lead you astray.”

He claps her warmly on the shoulder as he stands, winking before he heads out the door and leaving her in a red-cheeked daze. Todo means well, she knows, but he’s so far off the mark she wouldn’t know how to respond even if he’d given her time to.

In the end, all she ends up mumbling into her glass of water is: “It’s not Luffy…”

 

//

 

Alabasta flourishes.

It takes weeks to get the initial news spread and repairs started, and months to make any significant headway. It’s a year before Koza finally tells her that Yuba is thriving— not just rebuilding, not just managing, but _thriving._ And the rest of the country follows suit, growing and prospering and it’s wonderful, it is, but it’s been six months _exactly_ and Vivi, for all the desert in her veins, misses the sea.

No one is blind to the way her eyes light up when the Strawhat crew makes the newspapers. They’re only glad that it happens so often, a near-monthly occurrence that keeps Vivi buoyant through rougher weather. Fixing the nation isn’t always progress; sometimes it is discovering skeletons long-covered in sand, complaints of taxes, and petty theft. If there is any blessing it’s that there is peace, for the most part, deaths few and far between and companionship more common than selfishness. It isn’t easy, but it could always be worse. She has seen worse.

And when her shoulders are weighed down with the burden of it all, she drags out old newspaper clippings and strengthens her resolve as surely they must all be doing.

On the worst nights, she digs out an old, borrowed shirt and finds comfort in it, though it smells only of soap and not of the ocean anymore. It still reminds her of her time with them, of Nami who loaned it to her, of the Merry she sailed on and the marks that they shared.

Sometimes, she thinks about getting a tattoo.

 

* * *

 

“Nami, why are you sad?”

The question catches her off guard, all the more so because it’s Luffy who asks, curious wide eyes seeming to pierce right through her. For all of his childish antics, it’s scary, that gaze of his. “I’m not sad.” A half-truth. She is happy— to be free, to taste salt and wind and sea. She’s been happy since she met him, she thinks, even when she was supposed to be miserable for the sake of her village and she forgot, just for a little while, to force herself not to smile.

She doesn’t have to force herself not to smile anymore. She doesn’t have to force herself _to_ smile, either, but sometimes thoughts of the blue-haired princess will work their way into her mind and it’s just…

“I miss her too. But differently, right?”

Nami nods at the question before she catches herself and thinks it’s a curse, for sure. “I don’t–!”

She almost snaps, but _I don’t miss her_ would be too much of a lie, too cruel. How does he even know what she was thinking about? “I’m not feeling sad about it. It’s been _months,_  Luffy. You’re probably more sad about the food than anything.”

“Of course I am!” Luffy pouts. “The food was good. But Vivi…” He trails off, sliding to the deck in a gloom. “I wish she could have joined the crew. It would have been fun!”

“There’s no way she could have.” Nami does not sigh— she stops herself just short of it. “Alabasta needs her.”

“Yeah,” Luffy agrees. “She’s a really good princess.”

He’s still staring at her with those inquisitive eyes but she doesn't notice, this time, staring out at the waves. She’s thinking about the nation, about the sand and the desert heat, and wondering what it looks like now, the Alabasta that Vivi is fixing. The Alabasta that Vivi remembered, spoke of, with stars in her eyes. Nami wonders how it’s going, if Vivi is ever overwhelmed.

“Yeah,” Nami absently mumbles. “She is.”

Some very, very small part of her mind wonders: _what would it be like to kiss her?_

 

//

 

If six months felt like ages, two years feels like a lifetime.

Time doesn’t really hold steady while Nami is away from the crew. Some days she tracks every hour, every wasted second, pouring herself endlessly over research and sea charts; other days she raises her head and realizes an entire month has passed in the blink of an eye. She doesn’t see the others in the newspapers and it takes four months for her to realize: that means Vivi isn’t seeing them, either.

But she saw Luffy’s message, too, Nami is sure. She must have understood it like they all did. Luffy is practically insane but they’ve all long since caught his bug, learned his language, lived life through his brighter eyes and she knows Vivi won’t have forgotten.

When her hair starts growing out, she lets it, this time. The style brings back fond memories, even if the color is wrong; her favorite shade of orange, but not her dearly-missed familiar ocean blue. Still, it’s nostalgic, and not so much in the way once she gets used to it. Nami blinks and realizes she’s nineteen; another blink, and she is twenty, and Vivi must be celebrating her eighteenth birthday right around now. From princess to queen, and Alabasta is surely growing with her.

Nami dips her quill in fresh ink and stares out at the clouds with resolve burning fiercely in her chest. There’s lots of people waiting for her return, after all. She can’t slack off now.

 

* * *

 

When Cobra brings up the prospect of suitors, Vivi thinks he’s joking. She laughs, too, and so does Carue, and it takes the both of them several minutes of Pell and Chakka looking increasingly uncomfortable (with Pell fighting back his own amusement) for Vivi to realize her father is, actually, completely serious.

“I see,” Vivi says, calmly and much more maturely than her previous outburst. “Thank you for your consideration, father.”

Cobra’s relief is plain on his face, “So you’ll see some of them, then?”

“Oh, not at all,” Vivi smiles. “But I appreciate your consideration.”

And as simple as that, she turns to leave, Carue following happily behind her as Pell muffles a laugh into his sleeve. His headstrong princess never had any plans of settling down with a prince; he’s known this since she was ten and beat up Kohza for the position of leader of their silly little gang. “I don’t want to say I told you so, but…”

“Then do not say it,” Cobra glares, rubbing at his face tiredly.

Outside, Vivi leans against the wall and admits to herself for the first time that all of her preferences for a suitor might boil down to a single person, a single name, a single longing ache in her chest.

“Oh, Carue, I’m really in trouble, aren’t I?”

 

//

 

The day of the Strawhats' reunion is deemed a national holiday in Alabasta, though Vivi keeps the reason a tight-lipped secret, held behind a smile and laughter so loud the whole kingdom joins in with her. All the citizens are happy to celebrate whatever has made their princess so joyful, even if she won’t say why. Her father smiles too, at the news, even if he won’t admit it. The whole nation rejoices for their silent saviors and she clinks her glass with Kohza’s and ignores his knowing smiles and feels the knot in her chest ease at the familiar headlines, familiar wanted posters.

And when the time for the next World Government meeting finally arrives, Vivi is filled with so much enthusiasm that even Cobra’s illness seems to ease, the ship never setting sail fast enough. It’s silly, really, but there’s a certainty in her chest that they’ll definitely be there.

If there’s anything she knows about the Strawhats, it’s that there’s nowhere they won’t go.

 

* * *

 

It’s crazy, Nami thinks, that they were invited to the World Government meeting. It’s probably a trap, or maybe a plea, or a recognition of the fact they’ve now taken down one of the four emperors on top of taking down three warlords and converting four to allies— it’s something they should look into, if nothing else, to keep their guard up. But Luffy decides they’re going and Chopper is ecstatic at the thought of Doctorine possibly being there and Sanji wants to meet princesses and Nami, for all that she should be a voice of reason, thinks _Alabasta_ and _Vivi_ and loses her voice, suddenly, protests falling short.

It has been a long, long time. Three years feels like three days and three lifetimes, for all that they’ve been through. When they get there, Nami doesn’t wait any longer. Patience has never been her virtue, anyway, and Vivi seems to match that sentiment, all but flinging herself into Nami’s waiting arms. Nami’s traits lie in curiosity, in an adventurous spirit, in seeing the vast wide ocean and setting her sights on _all of it at once_ and that hunger is still in her veins as she cups the side of Vivi’s face, fingers tangling in a strand of loose blue hair as bright and beautiful as the sea and she answers the question that she’s wondered for a little over three years now.

It would feel like the soft lips against hers, the gentle hand that winds its way around her back and holds her close and the beautiful sound of laughter as they pull apart, breathless and overjoyed.

It would feel like the honesty when she says “I missed you, I love you, you’ve _grown”_ with tears in her eyes and a smile on her face, and the way her heart feels like it could burst when Vivi hugs her tightly, sniffling as she laughs, “I bet you’ve gotten stronger, too.”

It would feel like the slight annoyance and fondness when the others make a racket, when Sanji collapses and Luffy cheers and Igaram joins Sanji on the ground, it would feel like the hand clasped in hers, it would feel like warmth and love and everything she’d longed for.

An answer, now, for the question that hasn’t left her since she thought it. _What would it feel like to kiss her?_

It feels like home.

 

//

 

Later, after all of the introductions to their new crewmates (and one re-introduction of Robin), after a tour of the Sunny and Vivi’s soft hands trailing on well-loved wood and so much laughter they all felt fit to burst, later Nami follows Vivi back to her quarters, to the rooms set up by the World Government for all the representatives.

Nami pauses, feeling out of place for all too many reasons. “I—”

“You can’t stay,” Vivi cuts her off with a smile, settling down on the bed. Such a lavish room, but then, it is one for a princess. “I wouldn’t ask you to. The call of the sea is a powerful thing, isn’t it?”

There’s a wistfulness to her voice that tells Nami she knows, makes her wonder how many times Vivi has sat and stared out at the ocean just beyond the desert and _yearned._ But home is so much more compelling; home in the sandy castle, home in the Thousand Sunny. Home in each other, but in the way that they return to shore, not in a way that lingers. Not yet.

But every ship has to pick a port.

“Someday, I’ll be finished with my map,” Nami says. It’s casual enough to pass for nothing but there’s a shakiness to her voice that’s never there, words as steady as her hands, as her maps, the tremble only present here. “It’s never too early to think about retirement, right?”

For a moment Vivi only stares, uncertain of what Nami’s leading to. Vivi’s eyes widen as the implications set in, nearly jumping off the bed to clasp Nami’s hands too tightly. “It… It is always wise,” Vivi nods, voice unsteady, “To... plan ahead.”

“Right? _Especially_ financially,” Nami laughs, but the sound is off. It’s plain to see she’s nervous, the weight of her words monumentous. “Though, maybe it’s too far, I mean, after all, I don’t even know if—”

The rest of her words are swallowed into a kiss and Vivi thinks that, maybe, she probably ought to stop interrupting, but then Nami is kissing her back and it hardly seems to matter, three years of longing condensed into this moment.

“Yes,” Vivi says, breathless and eager. “Some day, the port of Alabasta will be waiting for you. _I_ will be waiting for you, and you can show me a map of all the world and, and. Yes.”

 _“Yes,”_ Nami echoes, bursting into a giggly kind of laughter. Vivi follows, the both of them leaning on each other as they do. Their laughter is quelled only by another kiss, though neither of them is sure who starts it this time, only that they are glad for it.

Vivi’s skin is so soft under Nami’s calloused fingertips, worn rough from the use of her quills and Clima Tact no matter how many lotions she’s used. Nami trails her hands up Vivi’s arms, her neck, any exposed skin she can reach until she finally has to bunch her fists up in the frilly fabric, a royal garment worn for the occasion.

She thinks Vivi looked better in her t-shirts— she thinks Vivi might look best without any of it.

“It is a pain to take off,” Vivi murmurs, breaking her concentration and their kiss. When Nami tilts her head, confused, Vivi clarifies: “I may need help… undressing for the night. I-if you want to.”

There’s a blush high on her cheeks, uncertainty plain to see, and Nami pulls her closer to wrap her arms fully around the princess. “Of course I want to, dummy,” Nami murmurs. “I’ve always wanted you.” The admittance doesn’t feel heavy anymore; an anchor weighed at port. Vivi’s lips are on hers again when she pulls back and it takes a few moments before they do realize they have to separate to get the garments off, frilly clothes with so many layers Nami is dizzy.

It _is_ a fun game, though— Nami tries to see how many layers she can take off before Vivi notices, sash and vest and jewellery gone. She dangles Vivi’s earrings in front of her and laughs openly when the princess’s hands fly up to her ears, “When did you…?!”

“My bounty isn’t just for show, you know,” Nami grins.

“Cat burglar,” Vivi huffs, faking a pout before sinking into amusement. It feels so natural, so easy, and Nami’s clothes slide off easy too, thin-string bikini undone in a matter of moments. They’ve seen each others bodies before, fleeting glimpses in the bath years ago, but she hadn’t dared to let her eyes linger then.

Now, Vivi takes it all in with hands and mouth and a greed fit for a pirate, Nami’s soft sigh a reward as they walk slowly to the bed. Vivi falls onto it softly, pulling Nami down with her and feeling a smile pressed against her neck as Nami mouths wet kisses there, the last of her dress coming off.

It doesn’t feel frightening to be laid bare like this, not like she’d expected it to. There’s more anticipation than nervousness, more want than hesitancy. Nami’s hands rub against her thighs and she spreads them readily, covering her mouth at the surprised gasp she makes when a finger slips slick against her. “Now now, princess,” Nami grins, predatory and playful as she slips a finger inside, reaches up with her other hand to pry Vivi’s away. “I’ll be taking your noises, too.”

When Nami’s tongue joins her fingers, Vivi thinks there’s no way she could have kept quiet, anyway. She just might die here like this, under Nami’s slow and torturous touch— she thinks she might be okay with that, too.

(later, she’s glad she didn’t die before she got to touch Nami in return; Vivi learns she makes noises sweeter than any music, that her hair looks beautiful splayed out on the pillow, and that she is so, so warm and _real_ to sleep beside.)

 

//

 

In the morning, it’s no surprise when they run.

Negotiations fell through, of course. Luffy is utterly _impossible_ to reason with— did they seriously not see that coming?— and with that having failed, the World Government attempted to corner them. That failed, as well, but it does result in Nami being practically _yanked_ out the door by a very conflicted Luffy, enjoying the chaos but reluctant to leave with only one of the two occupants.

Vivi shoos them out with a smile and barely restrained laughter, saving the pain for later. Every parting will ache; this, she is sure of. She tells the Marines who bustle in after that she hasn’t seen any of them since last night and then follows to the edge of the docks to catch sight of the Sunny departing, the bustle of crew on board, familiar faces and new ones.

The boat is a stranger to her, and she to it, but there’s almost a nostalgia to watching it leave. The waves it leaves in its wake feel like they’re waving to her.

And then there is unmistakable orange hair, waving in the breeze from the stern of the ship, hands cupped around her mouth to shout: “I’ll definitely return to you!” before she waves, one arm faced around to show a familiar mark. A hastily drawn X in black marker, a secret just for them. Up above, hanging from the sails, Luffy waves too, the rest of the crew left to fend off cannonballs and steer away from the attacks.

It’s vague enough that no one would know it was meant for her; it doesn’t put Alabasta in any risk, and the familiarity of this scene nearly chokes her, tears welling up. This time she’s the one who has to keep silent, though she’s sure they know how she feels, just as she understood all those years ago.

“I’ll be waiting,” Vivi murmurs to herself, clutching the spot where her mark once was and feeling determination well up. She wants to become stronger, too. Alabasta can still be improved, and this meeting isn’t over with yet.

She thinks it may be time for that tattoo.

 

//

 

It only takes a month for their bounties to update.

Vivi opens the morning news coo and barely catches the wanted posters as they slip out, updated numbers and pictures bordering on ridiculous. Luffy has made a peace sign at the camera and the numbers alone are more ridiculous than that, with the swordsman and the rest of the crew following closely after.

Her eyes linger the longest on Nami’s, a mischievous smile directed at the camera, tongue sticking out and arm held up to display a tattoo proudly. It isn’t the blue one on her shoulder that Vivi has grown so familiar with, the story she still needs to ask about. It’s a story she knows well, a story she lived.

It’s a matching tattoo from half an ocean away. Vivi folds her hand over the black X on her own arm and smiles, setting the paper away to stare out at her kingdom, her home, her dock.

“I never thought I would look forward to retirement,” Vivi laughs to herself, sudden and sincere. Carue tilts his head curiously and she turns away, heading towards the door to start her days tasks. The day awaits, after all, just as she does. “Come on, Carue, let’s go get breakfast.”

For now, there is work to be done, and the nation she loves dearly still needs her. Retirement can wait; she can wait. Someday, she knows, her wandering heart will come home.

 

More than anything, that love is worth waiting for.


End file.
